Morrisons’ online director resigns weeks after joining
Morrisons’ online operations director George Dymond is thought to have quit his role just weeks after joining the supermarket chain to head up the day-to-day running of the recently launched online grocery service.
By Sarah Vizard
Dymond started at Morrisons at the beginning of January but quit at the weekend after the role did not meet his expectations, according to reports from Reuters and the Financial Times. A Morrisons spokesperson did not deny to Marketing Week that Dymond has left the job but refused to comment further, saying the situation is “complicated”.
Dymond is still employed by Morrisons, with a spokesperson confirming that he has “not left”. The Financial Times claims the supermarket Dymond is still contractually employed by Morrisons and is in talks with him over another role.
Morrisons launched its online grocery service in partnership with Ocado a little over two weeks ago. It is currently available in Warwickshire and West Yorkshire, with a wider roll out planned for later this year. The launch was supported by a marketing push, with press, radio and outdoor ads.
The supermarket chain cited its lack of ecommerce offering as part of the reason why it had such a disastrous Christmas. Like-for-like sales over the Christmas period were down 5.6 per cent year on year, the biggest drop of any of the major supermarkets, and it was forced to issue a profit warning.
Reports of Dymond’s resignation are the latest blow to Morrisons after it emerged last week that its treasurer was arrested on suspicion of insider dealing before it announced its tie-up with Ocado.
Prior to joining Morrisons, Dymond was group general manager of merchandise for Australian supermarket group Coles. He was also trading director at Carphone Warehouse for 10 years.
